There will be an adjourned meeting of the Missouri Base Ball Club, at 219 North Third street, on Monday, August 19th, at 6 P.M. A full attendance is requested.

A.C. Bernoudy, Pres't.J.T. Wilson, Sec'y.

-Missouri Republican, August 8, 1868

This is really great. Sure, we have another reference to the Missouri Club, which likely was active as far back as 1864. That's fantastic. But what's really significant here is that Alfred C. Bernoudy was the president of the Missouri Club.

Bernoudy was a member of the Cyclone Base Ball Club in 1860 and played center field for the club in the very first match game ever played in St. Louis - the July 9, 1860 match between the Cyclones and the Morning Stars. An accountant who also served as the Recorder of Deeds in St. Louis, he was one of the pioneers of the game in St. Louis.

For the most part, you don't see the pioneer players of the antebellum era still playing baseball in the post-war era. There were some - Bad Dickey Pearce being the obvious example - but for the most part those men, after their experiences living through the war, moved on with their lives. They got married, had kids, established careers, and simply didn't have the time for baseball anymore. They were replaced by a new generation of players and faded into the mists of history. So it's rare to see someone like Bernoudy still involved in the game, especially in St. Louis, where none of his Cyclone teammates were involved in the game just eight years after they played in the first match game in the city's history.

For me, it was amazing to see Bernoudy's name pop up in this little ad. When I saw it, my eyes narrowed a bit and I thought to myself, "Wait a minute. Bernoudy. Alfred Bernoudy? Alfred Bernoudy!" Yes, it's things like this that get me excited, renew my love for the subject matter, and keep me digging through the source material. Because I found this ad, I know more about Bernoudy and the Cyclone Club than I did previously. After almost a decade of researching the club, I can still find new stuff on the earliest players of the game in St. Louis. And that makes me happy.